Nick Sirianni

Q. I know before the season, you had the meeting with each player about their role. When a role changes during the season, especially when it decreases, how do you handle that? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, you talk to everybody, just open lines of communication. Our role meeting is – yes, it’s done in private, but it’s also done in person. And then you redefine roles as each game comes up because roles change here and there, week-in, week-out.

So, when you’re going over goals, ‘Hey, it’s important that we stop this guy, and you’re going to be responsible for that.’ So again, when guys’ roles change, positively or playing a little bit less or having less, you just communicate everything.

Q. We haven’t really seen QB Jalen Hurts be held back for load management before. What was behind that on Wednesday? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, he was dealing with – it was on the injury report, dealing with the ankle. You know, just making sure we’re precautious with everything.

Q. QB Jalen Hurts wasn’t on with an ankle. (Jeff McLane)

Q. I’m sorry. QB Jalen Hurts, it was an ankle? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: What was that?

That was a rest, yeah. Sorry.

Q. No problem. (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: I thought you were talking about somebody else. Alright.

Q. Is QB Jalen Hurts dealing with an ankle problem? (Eliot Shorr-Parks)

NICK SIRIANNI: No, rest.

Q. When it comes to that role, to follow up, everybody handles it a little bit differently. How much does that come into it the fact that you have to learn the personalities and figure out what button to push? (John McMullen)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, it’s just knowing everybody. And everybody has a little bit different personality, everybody is a little bit different. And just having that communication and knowing the guys, at the end of the day, is what’s the most important. So you’re able to communicate that with them.

And again, I don’t want to get too much into all the conversations that you have with everybody. But a lot of it is done in front of the team as far as, ‘Hey, here is what’s important for this week as a whole. Here is what’s important for you this week as an individual.’ Again, you can’t do that every single week like you do in the preseason, but yeah.

Q. How has motion helped? I know motion in the pass game obviously gives the quarterback a lot of pre-snap tells, but in the run game, especially the read part of it, how does the motion help an offense and a quarterback? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: Again, just puts deception into the defense’s mind, not giving them the same look. So they have to recognize different formations and adjust on the fly.

Q. When it came to the decisions for rest everything and else, with it being a short week the following week, how do you balance that? Knowing that you still want to go – (Chris Franklin)

NICK SIRIANNI: Everything you do, you’re trying to get the guys ready for this game, obviously, but also have the future in mind. Whether you have a short week the following week, or a long week, or a night game, or whatever it is. So you’re thinking about that with everything that you do.

So the rest this week – you look at every single player, and you have an individual plan. I think that’s why we have such good doctors and trainers and also strength staff because everybody has basically an individual plan. And even today, what will we do at the end of practice? That kind of [depends on] how the practice goes. How are we feeling? So something could turn into a jog-through.

So you have these contingency plans on everything. What are we going to do in this case, what are we going to do in that case? Every little scenario has a contingency plan.

And then we will see how the game goes, see what Monday is going to look like. Will we bring the guys in, will we practice? Later in the week, all those things are discussed. And you go off your plans that you have done prior to that as well and just adjust those as you go.

Q. We learned that T Lane Johnson and a couple offensive linemen came to you during the bye week and expressed their desired direction for the offense. What was that moment like from your perspective? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: I spent a lot of time with [QB] Jalen [Hurts], obviously, during that bye week and just talking through things. Jalen had so much good insight, and then you always listen to your players as far as they are the ones out there seeing it and feeling it.

And so I think it’s just good feedback. That’s just good organizational football, is to be communicating with everyone to get everyone on the same page. Yeah, I thought it was great. Great, productive meetings.

Q. Why do you think the Cowboys had such a drastic change from one way to the other? 8-0, dominated at home last year and now they’ve really struggled. What have you seen on tape that makes them so different this year? (Bob Brookover)

NICK SIRIANNI: I still really have a lot of respect for this football team. They have got a lot of good players. They’ve got good coaches. And we’re going to have to be on it, going up there into a difficult place to play and be on it.

So we’re preparing that way. When we put on tape, you watch tape different ways. Sometimes you watch it in the flow of the game, and sometimes you watch it as cut-ups. And when you’re watching cut-ups, you’re like, ‘Whoa, man, that’s a tough one to stop’ or ‘This is a tough scheme to stop’ or ‘This is a tough player to stop.’

They have our full attention. This is a rivalry game. This is a big-time game against a big-time opponent, and I haven’t been a part of a team that’s won there yet. So that’s the goal, to go down there and win against a good opponent.